Jack Barnes: Cobar man sentenced for intimate image crimes

A man who joined his mate for a sex act with a woman has been sentenced after the pair recorded her without consent in the NSW outback.

A 23-year-old man’s previously good standing in the community has saved him from a crushing sentence after he pleaded guilty to intentionally recording and distributing an intimate image on social media without a woman’s consent.

Jack Barnes, a resident of Cobar, about 300 kilometres northwest of Dubbo, received convictions in court on Monday when he appeared to be sentenced for the crimes he committed on the night of June 13, 2020.

Cobar man Jack Barnes has been sentenced to a community corrections order for intentionally recording an intimate image without consent and distributing it. Picture: Facebook

According to a statement of agreed facts tendered in court, Barnes, co-offender Clinton Everett, 29, and the woman went to a bar together but she left early and went to bed because she was feeling unwell.

After the woman went to bed, court documents state that Barnes opened the door to her room and stuck his head in.

Everett entered the room and the men started to have sexual intercourse with the woman.

While that was happening both men took photos and videos, and posted the images to the Snapchat app.

The woman, who was residing in Canberra at the time and travelled to spend time with Everett after they met on a dating app two weeks prior, did not consent to being filmed.

“Why have you got your phone, put it away,” the woman said to Everett before she managed to knock the device out of his hand.

Afterwards, Barnes said “I’m sorry”.

In a victim impact statement tendered in court, the woman said she’s had to live with increased anxiety and a sense of shame since the crimes were committed against her.

“I feel as if my privacy was violated and that anyone I encounter may have witnessed the incident,” she wrote.

“Knowing there are people out there that may have seen me in a light only reserved for my trusted intimate partner, and they may come across me and know of this even though I have no idea who they are, is very uncomfortable.

“I was in a most vulnerable state and it was exploited, to think that people may have interpreted what they were sent in their own way makes me feel scared and anxious to meet anyone who may have known them.”

The woman’s image was posted to Snapchat. Picture: Denis Charlet/AFP

The woman said she was now “guarded” about posting photos of herself to social media and lived in fear of visiting nearby towns because she worried about seeing Barnes and Everett or people who know them.

“I have found myself with disturbed sleep, as thoughts of the incident would come to mind frequently, how it went, how I could have made it go differently, what could I have said or done,” she said.

“I know I can’t change what happened and I’m constantly working on moving past the incident and enjoying my life but I find memories of the incident or thoughts about ‘what ifs’ plague my mind.

“What if I had tried harder to get away from the incident? What If I had said something different … I find myself simply wishing it had simply never happened.”

The woman said she knew her “true character”, but “to think strangers I don’t know have already come to a judgement on that character is honestly unnerving”.

“Going into the future I know I will always find myself weary of those I’m not sure I can trust, as I never know who they know and if they have seen what was shared,” she wrote.

Dubbo Local Court magistrate Gary Wilson said Jack Barnes’s actions were inexcusable. Picture: Ryan Young

Magistrate Gary Wilson encouraged Barnes to read the victim impact statement in its entirety so he could understand how the woman had been impacted.

“There’s absolutely no excuse for it,” Magistrate Wilson said.

“I don’t care if it was fuelled by alcohol or drugs, or a combination, or whatever, there’s still no excuse.

“Fortuitously for you, you do not have any criminal record and you were previously a person of good character.”

Magistrate Wilson convicted Barnes and imposed a two-year community corrections order which requires him to be of good behaviour.

Everett is due to be sentenced in Dubbo Local Court on December 16 after he pleaded guilty to intentionally recording an intimate image without consent and intentionally distributing it.